Remember that report that said Stanford was talking with Larry Brown? Well, Brown officially resigned from his post as executive vice president of the 76ers on Thursday, making him officially available to discuss any job offers. So it's just a matter of time until he lands at Palo Alto, right? Maybe not. According to Jeff Gooodman of FOXSports.com, Stanford's athletic director Bob Bowlsby did in fact offer Brown the job on Thursday, but he turned them down. I hate to try crawling into Brown's head (for one, I doubt I'd fit, and second I'm guessing it's quite lonely), but I never quite bought into the idea that he was willing to go back to the college ranks.
He's a big-time coaching talent with a bigger-time ego: he needs the bright lights, the daily inquisitions from reporters, the chance to stand in front of reporters 82 times a year explaining how hard of a job he has and how life would be so much easier if his point guard (doesn't matter who it is) would figure out how to play the right way. Yeah, he's predictable and a little bit annoying, but if that's the cost of turning a pretender into a playoff team, a lot of teams would be wise to pay the price.
(Part of me really wants to roast him for entertaining job offers while his team in the middle of a playoff run, just like he did during his final days with the Pistons, but c'mon, he's an executive vice president, I doubt half the guys on the team even know what he does. Whatever big picture responsibilities are no longer needed in what's turned out to be a best of five playoff series.)
ADVERTISEMENT
_thumbnail.jpg "NASCAR Cowboy Hats")
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. I think LB's looking for a pro gig.
On the various KU message boards, we have discussed Larry Brown's intentions. He didn't like recruiting 20-25 years ago when he was at KU; I have a hard time believing that he would like it any more now that he's in his late 60s. In addition, I have a hard time believing that any solid college program would really want to hire such a short-term solution; there's too much potential for negative recruiting.
I think he's angling for the Bulls job, personally. But the thing that boggles my mind about that is that for as much as Larry Brown makes himself out to be some sort of phenomenal teacher and leader, he didn't ever want to play young players.
As far as his college ambitions, I know he was angling for the KU and UNC jobs after Doherty was fired and after Roy took the UNC job. He has stated that he would coach KU again in a heartbeat...and we didn't want him. I guess there is ample evidence out there to make an athletic director doubt his commitment to guiding a college program.
Posted at 12:51AM on Apr 25th 2008 by petejayhawk
2. I doubt Brown was ever seriously considering Stanford. He's been at the game's highest level, and I doubt Brown would even consider a non-Top 5 college program. This 'Brown-to-Stanford' had rumor written all over it from the beginning.
Posted at 9:47AM on Apr 25th 2008 by Ryne Nelson